


Albatross

by social justicar (bossassbirch)



Series: Mia Shepard [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Character Death, Destroy Ending, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, custom shep but no real details mentioned, its sad yo, uncle urdnot, vanguard commander shepard, wrex is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 22:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8865586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bossassbirch/pseuds/social%20justicar
Summary: Less than an hour after the Crucible fires, Wrex has a shotgun in his hand and is ready force his way into a room with Anderson, or Hacket, or whoever-the-hell’s-still-alive-and-in-charge-here to send ships to the Citadel.  Without the mass effect fields to hold it in a stable orbit, it’s only a matter of time before the station begins to burn up in the atmosphere.  If the Alliance is too busy or too dead to recover their own marines, Wrex is perfectly happy to pick up the slack.
Or, the one where Wrex is the one to pull Shepard from the rubble post-destroy ending.





	

**Author's Note:**

> listen ok if you've got a better suggestion for a title let me know b/c this is all i got

     Less than an hour after the Crucible fires, Wrex has a shotgun in his hand and is ready force his way into a room with Anderson, or Hacket, or whoever-the-hell’s-still-alive-and-in-charge-here to send ships to the Citadel.  Without the mass effect fields to hold it in a stable orbit, it’s only a matter of time before the station begins to burn up in the atmosphere.  He’s spoken to his second, and a decent number of his companies (more than he expected to survive, anyhow) are reporting in, so he sees no issue with stuffing an Urdnot shuttle full with a ragtag group of volunteers and staging his own search-and-rescue mission.  If the Alliance is too busy or too dead to recover their own marines, Wrex is perfectly happy to pick up the slack.

     As the pilot (A turian.  Young.  His squad is dead, and he has nobody to report back to, so he may as well help if he can.) guides the shuttle through the collapsing wards, Wrex tells him to stop at the Presidium Tower.  “I can cover the Presidium; the rest of you take the wards.  They’re too big to cover with such a small group, so work quickly and focus on residential areas.”  Wrex doesn’t wait for a reaction before leaping from the shuttle; the others can figure the rest out for himself.  Right now, searching the tower is Wrex’s priority; if Shepard’s alive, that’s where she’ll be.  If it’s selfish to put the life of one woman over all the people living on the Citadel, Wrex doesn’t care.  He can make an exception for the woman who cured the genophage.

     Wrex activates his scope mods, hoping the infra-red will pick up on any survivors.  Almost at once, he sees what he was looking for, a lone figure buried in the rubble at what was once the peak of the Presidium Tower.  “Shepard!” He shouts, breaking into a run.  

     When he finally finds her, the commander is breathing shallowly, her eyes closed.  Her exposed face is covered in dust, and her left arm has been shorn clean off.  The entire lower half of her body is covered in debris, and Wrex doesn’t want to think about how badly damaged her legs must be.  Instead, he wipes the dirt from her face, calling her name again.  “Shepard.” His voice is rough, and he speaks clearly, as if commanding her to open her eyes.  “Mia.”

     Shepard coughs, and specks of blood coat her lips.  She clenches her eyes shut tight, then opens them.  “Wrex,” she breathes, her voice taught with pain.

     “Hold on, Shepard.  I’ll get you out of here.”  Wrex hits the debris covering her legs with a lift field, and they float gently off of her.  Shepard groans as the pressure is relieved, exposing her crushed legs and hips.  Without the debris to staunch the flow, blood stains the ground around them.  Wrex clumsily pulls up his omni-tool, beginning to input the code to release medigel, but Shepard’s hand reaches for his wrist.

     “Don’t.”  It takes her a moment to find her breath.  “Save it for somebody who needs it.”  

     Wrex pauses, then nods, slipping his arm under her back and neck.  His other hand moves to gently support her head as he slides her out of the pile, into the light.  Her legs, nearly unrecognizable, drag behind them.  She grunts with every step he takes until he lowers them both down, leaning her back against his chest.  Her head falls back onto his shoulder, and from this new viewpoint she can see through the collapsing Citadel, see the Earth and the stars spread out below them.  

     Hearing her whimper in pain, Wrex can’t help but remember the times the shared on the Normandy SR1, fighting side by side.  The two vanguards, tough as nails and twice as sharp.  She was so fierce, so hard to keep down, she stood as the rejection of everything Wrex knew about humans.  He had joked then, called her the soul of a krogan in the body of a human, and with everything she did she proved him right.  Coming back from the dead, curing the genophage, destroying the reapers; to Wrex, she seemed tougher than any krogan.

     It hurts to see her as she is now, her body limp and exposed, her breathing growing increasingly ragged, her eyes filled with tears.  Wrex is reminded all at once how human Shepard is, how soft and squishy and oh-so-fragile.  She’s young, even by human standards, and as she lays in his arms Wrex can’t help but be reminded of all the children dead on Tuchanka, and all the children he would hold soon.  “Don’t worry.”  Wrex isn’t sure how to proceed; neither of them are particularly eloquent when it comes to emotion.  “Uncle Urdnot’s got you.  The Normandy made it out; I’d recognize that ship anywhere.  Your crew’s safe.”

     This just makes the tears come faster as Shepard struggles for breath, overwhelmed.  “Tell them,” she inhales sharply, “tell them I’m sorry.”  

     Wrex tightens his hold on her, hoping to provide the strength she lacks.  “You saved the whole damn galaxy.  You have nothing to be sorry for.”  She turns her head to the side, burying her face in his neck as her breathing grows harsher and her chest rattles.  “You’re safe.”  Wrex brings up a hand up to cup her face, gently wiping away the blood and tears.  “I won’t let anything harm you; not even the void.”  Wrex holds her as her breath hitches and then stops. “I have you.”  

**Author's Note:**

> some anon over at omegastation.tumblr.com said something about wrex finding shep in the rubble post destroy and i'm not okay
> 
> remember how in the citadel dlc wrex shouts "you mess with shepard, you mess with me" and calls himself uncle urdnot by the end of the 3rd game hes everyones grumpy lovable uncle i love him so much
> 
> hmu @ vvarp-core.tumblr.com if you want more Quality Content, or if you want to request fics (shakarian, mshenko, or gen pls) i need inspiration and friends omg


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